All Along
She looked at me for just a moment longer, my heart seizing in my chest, before she turned around and walked back into the throne room.
She’d come out just to spot me.
I stepped closer to Drayce and leaned over to whisper to him what had just happened.
He looked around inconspicuously. “Stay calm. Maybe you looked like a noble fae she knows, or maybe she wasn’t even looking at you.”
“She knows. I know she does. She knows it’s me, and it looked like…she had been waiting. Just confirming that I was here.”
“There are too many guards around for us to leave now and—”
A sudden calm washed over me as Drayce stopped talking, and I no longer had any thoughts other than getting into the throne room to continue our mission.
Drayce wore the same contented, blank face as everyone else in our group, so we waited in line quietly, our turn coming soon with only four fae in front of us.
It should have been weird. Why wasn’t I worried? Why were we all so…calm?
Everyone except Sevrin, who was sweating with the effort of maintaining our glamour.
“I’m flying in with you.”
“You’re safer out here, Noxie.”
“Absolutely not.”
We argued for another minute before I relented, mostly because I had no way to stop him.
We were next in the queue, and I could see into the throne room now.
Caedryn and Malvina sat on their intricately carved, painted, and bejeweled thrones, with Varyn standing beside his father.
Seeing him again surfaced feelings I’d been burying for months.
Feelings that heated my cheeks with embarrassment and roused my shadows with resentment.
Seeing his face made me feel like such a fool all over again.
Zareth and two other court members, including the blue-haired mage Eirathe, stood on the other side of Malvina, and there were four guards that I could see from here. Gods, I was ready to finish what I’d started with the prince and Zareth.
Three royals, three court members, and four guards. Against me, Drayce, Aerie, Bramick, Kellan, Bernitha, Elene, and Sevrin. We were outnumbered ten to eight, but the odds didn’t scare me. Nothing scared me at the moment, actually.
The sight of them all made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, but looking at Caedryn made my blood boil and my shadows sing. Anger took over, and my heart rate steadied. Shadow-me was silent but at the ready. I could feel it, even with my ring on.
I was ready to kill a king.
Drayce’s hand brushed mine, a sign that he was beside me for whatever came next.
The couple who went in before us bowed to the king and, after speaking with him, left through the side entrance to the throne room. The guards gestured for us to move forward. With a last look at Drayce, I followed him inside.
I saw Noxie from the corner of my eye fly through the tall doors of the room, unseen.
At least that had gone right so far.
“Step forward, bow, and present your inquiry or grievance to His Royal Majesty, King Caedryn Veylor!” The herald’s voice was squeaky and nasally, that of an unfortunate soul stuck in this room that would soon be shrouded in death.
Eleven to eight, then.
Every step toward that throne seemed to take a year.
“My, my, look how you’ve grown, my child. Just as planned.”
My whole body froze. That voice was not Noxie’s in my mind…and it made my head hurt like my brain was being squeezed.
It was Malvina. She knew it was me under the glamour after all…
and she could speak in my mind—why, I didn’t know, but it couldn’t be good.
I immediately knew we’d stepped into a trap, but before I could convey this to Drayce, Sevrin dropped our glamour, and Bramick barricaded the open doors, sealing us in.
Caedryn bellowed his rage at the realization of who stood before him, and chaos broke out.
Drayce, Bramick, and I capitalized on the shock from the rest of the room and struck first.
Drayce created a storm above us that he drew a bolt of lightning from and struck clear through one guard’s heart.
Bramick stomped a booted foot and sent sharp spears of stone through the marble floor to skewer another guard.
I shot a single shadow tendril at the guard closest to me, and when his neck was firmly in its shadowy grasp, I sent a powerful ball of fire toward the court members that were recovering from shock and rallying to protect their king, throwing defensive shields up before taking up the fight.
At the exact moment my shadow separated the guard’s head from his body, the guards Drayce and Bramick had killed fell to the ground. Three down…
My fireball sent the court members scrambling out of the way, but it didn’t hit any of them.
Aerie floated high above us and used her air magic to float the last guard all the way to the ceiling before slamming him back to the ground, where he remained motionless.
All the guards were dead, leaving only the royals and the three court members. And the herald who…
Who had the handle of a dagger I recognized as Kellan’s protruding from one eye socket and laid motionless not more than one step from where he’d announced our arrival.
Caedryn and Varyn both transformed into their vey, leaping at the rest of us still huddled together in a group. I tried to reach Caedryn with a shadow tendril, but his fire burned me as if my magic had been part of my body, making me cry out in burning pain.
So demon fire could hurt my shadows.
Shit.
I clenched my jaw and sent the tendril instead toward Varyn, who jumped over it in his massive wolf form and landed with his front paws on Elene’s shoulders, sending her to the ground.
Before anyone on our side could react, he clamped her head in his jaws and bit down, spraying blood as her head caved in, and then her body went limp.
Bile rose in my throat at the sight, making something in me crack—and this time it wasn’t the shadows. I wanted to stop the chaos and mourn her brutal death, rage at the prince for his brutality and betrayal, but there was no time.
Drayce sent a shield of water up before Caedryn got too close to me, then sent a bolt of lightning at Varyn, drawing a yelp from him and filling the room with the smell of burned hair.
Good. Let him burn.
Caedryn’s Pyrrath bellowed its fiery rage and steamed against Drayce’s water shield.
I took half a breath to look around me and found Bramick locked in combat with a one-handed Zareth, and Aerie in an airborne battle with the mage, who apparently had the light element and kept disappearing.
Bernitha was backing away from the last court member I now recognized as Fenric the master of coin. They were locked in a sword fight, and Bernitha was fighting what looked to be a losing battle. Kellan was making his way to her, sending a sharp throwing star toward Fenric’s head as he ran.
Sevrin was backing away from all the chaos toward the rear of the room.
Malvina just sat on her throne, watching it all unfold. She looked…entertained. Non-bothered.
I had to keep my focus on the battle in front of me—Caedryn in his Pyrrath form.
I drew my sword from its sheath at my waist and took a steadying breath before spinning out from behind Drayce’s water shield to slice through Caedryn’s fiery belly.
He let out a wall-rattling roar. It had been effective, sending him stumbling back, but it wasn’t a death blow.
Varyn was back on his feet, limping slightly on a singed paw, but bounding toward me.
“You,” I snarled at him as Drayce’s water doused and dampened Caedryn’s flames.
I swore the white wolf raised a lip at me in a taunting smile.
“Fight me like a man, you coward!” Both an insult and a challenge. I’d take his head whether it was a wolf’s or a male’s—I didn’t care which.
He stayed in his vey form as he leapt for me. I slid under his outstretched paws and sliced up with my sword. Only the tip of my blade made contact, slicing mostly through fur but still drawing blood.
He landed behind me and slid across the marble floor, where Bramick slammed him in the side with a boulder. I turned my attention back to Caedryn, and what I saw made my heart stop as time seemed to freeze.
Caedryn had Drayce on his knees, a rope of fire wrapped around his chest, binding his arms to his sides. Drayce doused them both in water, but the fiery cord remained, burning through his clothing and searing his skin.
His look of pain and strenuous effort gripped my heart.
All thoughts but those of him vanished. I sheathed my sword, slipped my shadow-dampening ring off and into my pocket, and unsheathed my fire daggers.
I called to the shadows.
I would protect my own, even if I had to lose myself to do it. I wouldn’t fail now where I’d failed Nella.
The effect was immediate. Most of the room stopped fighting to watch as I transformed into my shadow vey and my world turned as dark as my shadowed skin.
Bernitha used the opportunity to drive her sword through the heart of the court fae she’d been engaged with, and thank the gods, Caedryn released Drayce to pursue me.
Drayce took heaving breaths as he turned to me and gave a nod.
I felt the angry calm take over. All other emotions were gone, making my head clearer. And more vengeful.
This is your moment, angry-Naci. Help me finish this…
My shadows shot out at everyone still alive who opposed us, grabbing all but Caedryn and Malvina. My shadows couldn’t touch Caedryn, couldn’t find the mage disappearing and reappearing all over the ceiling, and wouldn’t touch Malvina, which was mildly irritating, but I’d figure that out later.
I engaged the fire magic in my daggers, and the room collectively gasped when the flames that licked across the blades turned black.
“Gods… The black flame,” I heard Bramick say in complete awe from somewhere beside me.
I guessed this was the combination of fire and shadow that Nox Incineram had warned about. The continent-ending kind.
Perfect.
“Stop, Caedryn, or I’ll kill every one of your people in here one by one.” My demon voice was back, and I was beginning to like it.